A Case of Work Overload and Marbled Pound Cake

It has been some time. I've been a mix of lazy, busy and uninspired. Mostly lazy.

A few updates:
 I am NOT getting my apartment. Apparently, I can't trust the leasing officer enough to feel safe with my deposits. The total rent ended up being so much more than I thought. But it turns out okay because I'm going to continue living where I am, but in the upstairs apartment. Yes, I get to come home to that huge beautiful house except WITH MY OWN KITCHEN. All for the same price as the room I'm living in now. The best thing about it is I get to share the apartment with my Auntie Bining who is so much more than what people think. This also means home cooked filipino dishes. This makes me infinitely happier.

I have been applying for higher paying jobs. One of which I hope to become a future employee. HOWEVER, I'm slowly enjoying where I work now. Everyone at my job is VERY friendly. After two weeks, I would be sad if I left.

My diet is terrible. There is absolutely no sign of vegetable in it. This brings me down. Not only is my health going down, but it does take effect on my stress levels. Healthy foods are not really influenced here as much as it is back home. I'm still having a hard time with the kitchen. However, I AM getting there. I've managed to bake a few things. Though baking is much easier than cooking. I'm also led to believe my sugar habits as of late is what is making me feel zombie-like at the moment. I'm fighting to keep my eyes open.

(IT HAS BEEN SOME TIME)

Last night, I had a chicken soft taco and a chicken bacon tortada from Taco Bell. It was not good. After, I had a pint (yes a WHOLE fucking pint) of Ben & Jerry's cake batter ice cream. Oh. My. God. If EVER you have a super simple chocolately craving, this is what you want. Heaps of nutella swirled into ice cream is YES in my book. No, it's not really nutella, but it had the same consistency. The only thing I would down vote about this is that the yellow cake batter ice cream did not taste like cake batter. Nonetheless, it was still amazing. You want to try this. Just don't be dumb and eat the whole thing. Save some for later. Or you'll end up buying another pint like me.

I was looking through a few blogs and came across a pound cake recipe from Martha Stewart. All of last week I had been craving something chocoately, dense and bread like. Pound cake sounded amazing to me. Now I had never made anything marbled, or anything cakey...that last part might be a lie. I had it saved as a document and wrote it down. I do not recommend writing out recipes, for chance of writing it out wrong. Now it's one thing to write it out wrong, but to write it out right (HAR) and STILL GET THE RECIPE WRONG is another thing. This was my ding dong fault. For some reason, instead of putting the 2/3 cup of sugar, I put the measurements of the flour: 1 1/4 cup. Of sugar. I mean, I had it written out. Not sure how I ended up doing that. About a half hour after putting it in the oven, I looked over the recipe and realized I did this. I raged. Pulled the cake out of the oven. Tried it. NOT BAD. Definitely not as sugary as I thought it was. But very bland. Not marbled at all. This resulted in my finding of B&J's cake batter ice cream. So either way, I'm happy.

The cake did actually taste better with the cake batter ice cream. But then again, anything tastes good with ice cream, even hot dogs.

Marbled Chocolate Pound Cake
by Martha Stewart

8 oz unsalted butter
2/3 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
4 large eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
1 1/4 cup AP flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
5 oz semisweet chocolate

Preheat oven to 350F. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a medium bowl. Cream butter and sugar in another bowl. Add in eggs, one at a time. Alternate the flour mixture and milk. Do not over mix, only till combined. Melt the chocolate in the microwave if you're lazy like me, or a double boiler.
Add half of the cake mix to the chocolate. NOT THE CHOCOLATE TO THE CAKE MIX DUMB DUMB. Drop large spoonfuls of each batter into a buttered loaf pan, alternating. Use a knife to swirl the mixes together. Don't get excited and swirl the batter until it's all chocolate.
Bake for 1 hour, depending on your oven. I had to bake for an hour and 10 minutes because I'm a ding dong. Let the cake stand for 10 minutes before serving. I always find that it tastes better after completely cooled, refrigerated even.

Down South

Statesboro is so awesome! There isn't much here, but it's great. I don't have to drive so far to get to the other side of town. The past week has been busy. Lots of apartment searching. I've chosen not to live in the beautiful house I am now, because I have such an issue using the house owner's kitchen. Everything is so nice and decoratively displayed, I wouldn't want to mess it up. So I'm spending loads of money eating out, which makes me sick to my stomach. I want homemade rice and chicken, sad face. Anywho, the house is absolutely amazing. It looks exactly like the house that Noah built in The Notebook. I cringe when I bring that movie up, it disgusts me. I have my own bedroom and bathroom all for $300 a month. Then I'm asked, why in hell would I want to leave this? Well because. I need to eat. And it won't be from this amazing kitchen. It will be in a smaller kitchen in a one bedroom/one bath town home for DOUBLE THE PRICE. I rage, but it's okay. I don't have any pictures of the house yet, but I will throw some up once I remember to actually take one.s

The weather here is kind of ridiculous. It's been up around 88F all week except for today, dropped down to 76. While looked at apartments yesterday, one of the leasing officers was showing me around. I asked about the heat. She said it stays around 80 until June, then jumps up to 90 during July and August and back down to 80-70 through September and November. This is the best thing I've heard all week. Summers in San Diego were really short and sad. But this. THIS IS AMAZING. Heat and humidity is my thing. But there has been this strange thing in the air. Something is up with the pollen in the trees. Most cars are covered with a light yellow dusting. I have to wash my car every few days so it doesn't turn yellow. Tons of people are suffering from the pollen, like the house owner I live with. She's had a terrible cold and scratchy throat all week. BUT I'M GOOD BRO.

I do believe this is somewhere out in El Paso, TX.

 I can't remember was swamp/river/lake/huge ass body of water this was named, but it was huge. The bridge was a good 10 miles long.

 This is where people some to drown babies. Such as these folks.

And this one as well.

I unintentionally took a picture of the sign; I was aiming for the actual river.

Couldn't find the welcome sign, doh.

I hate how my own mother takes better pictures than I do.

I turned around and found my dad drinking the water. He said it reminded him of home in Ohio.

The streets of downtown New Orleans was WAY too crowded to find any parking. Next to the sign you could see a part of the Superdome where everyone stayed for shelter during the hurricane.

My mom had to beg and cry for us to stop and take this picture, it was funny.

This one is my favorite.

We managed to drive through four different states in one day. Hence the same outfit in a lot of these pictures.

Leaving Pensacola.

We made a detour in Jacksonville and visited my best friend(s) from elementary. There was supposed to be another twin there, but she was at work. Sad face.

Peaches, ha.

The last day my parents were here, we drove around Savannah.

 

 My mom was talking to a jogger, but she had headphones on.

This is probably the most epic picture of my dad. Much like this one.

Tybee Island.

I absolutely hate packing and unpacking.

 This is where I live. Fo cheap son.

I won't be sharing anything food related for a while, since I'm still in the process of looking for an apartment, but I will get there eventually. I must mention, to get it off my shoulders, that my life is a MESS. Thank you.

I made it!

Okay guys, so I'm here in Statesboro and LOVING this heat. I'll post up some pictures of the trip once I get the chance. I have to drive around in parking lots, stealing business owners wifi. I didn't fly off a cliff!