Raw Chicken and Sex Cake

I love Thursdays. For numerous reasons. First and foremost, it is the day of the week where I can officially be excited because there is only one more day of class. Secondly, I only have one class all day on Thursdays and it is early in the morning, which leaves the entire rest of my day for me to do anything that I please (and by that I mean work on GE stuff, do homework, etc.) Thirdly, it is the day of the week where we have a few extra ladies in the apartment with whom we make dinner and dessert with. We are always cozy and lazy and its so very wonderful. All in all, its an awesome day.

Lazy Ladies on Thursday night :)

Tonight, I was the person required to cook the dinner. Somehow its often the case that I am the one expected to make dinner... but such is life. Anyway, tonight on the menu was Chicken Noodle Casserole. Super simple recipe, consisting of very few ingredients. I put everything together with the help of Cara and Brittany, put it in the oven for the required time at the correct temperature. 30 minutes later when the buzzer went off, I took the casserole out of the oven. Looked great, smelled great. Awesome. Cara and Rupal were the first to make a plate, and after one bite of noodles, Cara went to eat some of the chicken... only to find out it was completely and utterly raw! What the! Confused I went and rechecked the recipe... only to discover the one word that changed everything... "cooked"... as in "4 boneless chicken breasts cooked and cut up"... woops! We had to throw the casserole back in the oven at a higher temp for about 15 more minutes to get the chicken cooked. All in all though, the casserole proved to be pretty damn good. Raw chicken and all!

The dessert of the evening is the famous "Better than Sex" cake. Phenomenal chocolate cake with cool whip icing, kept chilled. There's more to it, but if everyone knew, it wouldn't be so special! It is by far my favorite dessert to make/eat. By far. If you haven't had it, you are completely missing out.

An almost half-eaten Better than Sex cake :)

Today we got a lot of snow in the Ohio Valley region... from Louisville to Cincinnati and anywhere else local to those cities. For those of us in Louisville, we didn't experience a lot of snow until this afternoon, but once it started falling, it was absolutely beautiful. I love snow. I know so many people who hate snow, or get tired of it quickly, but not me. I love it. There is something so surreal and peaceful about a snowfall that I feel nothing else compares to. The snow makes the grungiest cities look pretty and serene... It even makes Niagara Falls more beautiful...

Niagara Falls over Christmas break with the family

When I think about snow, I think about the craziness and unreal conjecture that no two snowflakes are ever alike. Is that seriously possible? Think about the millions upon millions of snowflakes that fell just in this region today... Then add that to the snowflakes that will fall tomorrow in the north east, or the snowflakes that fell last week around the U.S.... and we of course must also consider the snowflakes that have fallen elsewhere in the world this year. And then consider that snowflakes have been falling for hundreds upon hundreds of years... and yet no two are expected to EVER be the same? Who are we to argue this point when we obviously cannot inspect all snowflakes that ever existed... but the entire notion in itself just baffles me. Logically I think its ridiculous and definitely just doesn't seem possible. And yet at the same time I think it is wonderfully fascinating because when we think about it, the big man upstairs has created billions of people, each different from another in some way or another, so why not make snowflakes different from each other as well? The vastness of the intricate makings of every single tiny thing in this world fascinates me. Its absolutely mindboggling if you ask me. But beautiful, none the less.

Taken a few weeks ago at Ault Park in Cincinnati

Also taken at Ault Park

And again...

 

Today, Cara felt it necessary to go out on our back porch and take this poor little painted pumpkin we bought before Halloween and set him up on the ledge near the snow. Needless to say, his stem fell off the second she tried to lift the pumpkin, poor little rotten guy. But its pretty awesome because if you hadn't touched him, you would have never known he was rotting as he appeared to be holding up beautifully on the porch.



Cara and the Rotten Pumpkin

Last night Alex called me to tell me about a potential job opening happening this upcoming year that would be a perfect fit for him as a PE teacher. I am so excited for him, even though I know it will be quite a while before anything is answered in regards to the job. It's crazy because if it wasn't for my cousin Katie, this connection may have never happened. It is funny to me how things seem to work out in life and how someone networked with someone else could make a huge difference in someone's life. I know that it was a big choice for Alex to decide to move to Kentucky, and I am so very grateful that he did. I know that Alex and his family, along with myself and my family, were nervous for Alex to move to a completely new town, but I think it is turning out to be a great thing. Everything happens for a reason and I pray that new doors continue to open for Alex as he settles into his new life here... :)

Time for some more cake and the new episode of Bones... Man do I just wish Booth and Brennan would get together already!