Currently....

...reading

1. Texbooks

I’m a college student. 'Nuff said. 

2. “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie

Technically, I’m not reading this yet. But I’ve gotten it from my library for my Kindle. That’s close enough, right? Honestly, though, I do plan to start reading it soon. This is going to be my homework breaks this weekend (and it’s basically my best chance to read. This week was devoted to law, and next week will be to Cedars.)

Anyways, I digress. I saw Cedarville’s theatre production of “And Then There Were None” a couple years ago, and I loved it. It was my introduction to CU theatre, and I couldn’t have asked for anything better.

I’ve never actually read the book, so now seemed like just as good of a time as any other to do so. Also, it’ll count to my 40 books this year goal (Just so y’all know, for a book to qualify, I can’t have read it before.). I’m really excited to start it!

...watching

1. “Horrible Histories”

Have you ever been in a situation where you had to list all the kings and queens of England but couldn’t? Do you need a refresher on history?

If you answered “yes” to either of those questions, then “Horrible Histories” is for you!

“Horrible Histories” is a children’s show on the BBC, which ran for 5 seasons, with the final season coming out just last year. Based off the series of books of the same name, “Horrible Histories” is a Monty Python-esque show, teaching history through sketches and parodies.

This show is definitely aimed at children (c’mon, it’s hosted by a rat puppet named “Rattus Rattus,” and, yes, I am serious.)

My favorite segments of the show are the songs. 

What better way is there to learn about the Incan priests than a parody of “Stayin’ Alive” (in “Horrible Histories,” it’s “Ain’t Stayin’ Alive”)? Or maybe you have trouble keeping straight Henry VIII’s six wives? Well, there’s a song for that (complete with hand motions!) – “The Wives of Henry VIII: Divorced, Beheaded & Died.” 

And who doesn’t love a good “High School Musical” parody, especially when it’s about vicious Spartans? Of course, there’s also always a time when you need to know who the four most evil Roman emperors were. But where could you find that and learn it in a catchy song? Oh, that’s right – “Horrible Histories” in “The Evil Emperor’s Song.”

But the sketches in the show hold their own against the music. My favorite sketch is “HH Movie Pitch,” where historical figures come in and (unsuccessfully) try to pitch the story of their lives to the produces. The producers always try to turn the truthful story into some huge, dramatic, partially fictional blockbuster. One time, Alfred the Great spent the entire pitch trying to convince the panel to not typecast him as “cake guy.”

2. A lot.

Some of you know that I have kinda geeky taste in my TV shows (and if you didn’t, now you do). Yes, I enjoy watching “Doctor Who” and “Sherlock.” Yes, I did spend a lot of the most recent season of “Sherlock” yelling at my computer because it was so frustrating. No, this isn’t a problem.

But I do watch other, less geeky shows. And I’m juggling quite a few at the moment.

“NCIS” – I’ve been watching NCIS for several years now (definitely more than 5, not sure exactly how long, though). I’m several episodes behind, but I’ll catch up.

“NCIS: LA” – For the longest time, I refused to watch this spin-off. How could they take my beloved characters and just create a spin-off? How could it possibly be as good as the original? My family and I started watching in the last year or so, and I’m hooked.

“Chuck” – I started watching “Chuck” recently (if you can’t tell, I like the action-adventure-crime-drama-type show). It’s a little weird when you start watching it, but trust me. It gets better. And better. And better. Just wait – you’ll find yourself trying to resist watching just one more episode on Netflix.

“White Collar” – This show might win first place for the worst, most painful cliffhangers at the end of seasons. “White Collar” is currently between seasons, so I am here waiting patiently (mostly) for the next season.

“Once Upon A Time” – Yes, this is a little more on the geeky side, but it’s so good! Take fairy tale characters and put them in this world? Great! Add an evil witch? So good. Create a scenario in which everybody in the town doesn’t remember who they are/what happened? Even better.

There’s more that I watch than this, and more that I want to start watching. I started “Supernatural” over break, but I’m not that far into it (note: don’t watch the first episode by yourself in the dead of night. Creepy.). I’ve started watching BBC’s new series “The Musketeers” (very, very loosely based off the books by Alexandre Dumas). And I watched an episode of BBC’s “Doc Martin” over break, and I want to watch more of the series. 

So, yeah. Check some of these out!

...listening to

1. “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” soundtrack

I’ve been obsessed with the soundtrack to “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” for quite a while now. I love listening to movie soundtracks because I can experience the movie again without actually watching it. They’re perfect for listening to while doing homework and fit my criteria for such music (interesting and dynamic enough to keep me awake, but without lyrics to distract me). On this soundtrack, however, my favorite song actually doesn’t play during the movie itself – it’s during the credits. “I See Fire” was written, composed and performed by Ed Sheeran. This song captures the tone of the movie well and is the perfect bow on the package. 

2. “Wicked” soundtrack

As my unitmates can attest, I’m either listening to the “Desolation of Smaug” soundtrack or to “Wicked.” They’re probably a little tired of hearing them, but I love both these soundtracks.

I had the privilege to see “Wicked” on Broadway over Christmas break, and I was hooked.

I’d heard the music before. My choir had sung it. I learned some in voice lessons. And I liked the music then. But now? Addicted.  

Why do I love it so much? Two words – Idina Menzel (Adele Dazeem?). Idina is so talented that I can’t even begin to do her justice.

First of all, she’s an alto. I’m an alto. I can sing all of her parts. And there’s nothing better than belting out “Defying Gravity” or “No Good Deed” when you have a particularly annoying or stressful piece of homework to do.

Second, she pours so much emotion into her performance. Unfortunately, the closest I have come to seeing her perform is me sitting at my laptop watching YouTube videos. But still, she pours everything she has into Elphaba.

What are you currently reading/watching/listening to?

A Cappella – No Instruments Needed

I love a cappella music. Singing it, listening to it – it really doesn’t matter. I love it either way.

I’d listened to a cappella off and on for a while (mostly Straight No Chaser), but I really started getting into it a couple years ago when my family started watching the Sing-Off.

We missed season one. Season two was wonderful, and we were hooked. Season three was even better, and I was addicted. The show was then cancelled, but it was brought back this past Christmas for a fourth season. The best parts of seasons three and four? Tight harmonies and clever arrangements.

Every episode of the Sing-Off begins with all the groups banding together for an arrangement of a popular song, which often relates to the theme of the episode. Season four started off with the groups singing a mash-up of songs by Fun. Through the season, they went on to do a party anthem mash-up and “movie night” mash-up, among others (each of these reflected that night’s theme).

Season three’s winner has made a cappella mainstream and popular (Pentatonix, anyone?). Pentatonix’s harmonies are tight, with innovative (and fun!) arrangements, and they cover some of my favorite music while still introducing me to some songs that I’ve never heard before. Some of their covers I actually prefer to the original version (“Royals,” “I Need Your Love”). And while Pentatonix won the third season and is, by far, my favorite a cappella group, so many other groups have gone through the Sing-Off that also produce quality music. 

Season three introduced rap-apella through Urban Method. Urban Method finished third in the competition but still had high-quality music. My favorite song they did? “You’re A Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” Other than this rendition, I have never heard a rap in the middle of that song, but it works really well!

That season, the Dartmouth Aires finished second. And, boy, could they sing. In one episode, every group created a mash-up of songs by an artist. The Aires mashed up three of Queen’s songs – “Killer Queen,” “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Somebody to Love.” Their lead singer’s voice was gorgeous – Michael O could sing, pouring so much emotion into the music (and he could hold notes for an insanely long time).

And that’s only season three. Season four aired this past December, and oh my gosh was it good. This season aired over the course of only a couple weeks, but those weeks were packed with a cappella and talented singers. 

This season was structured differently than the two I had previously seen. In seasons two and three, the judges determined who was going home, and that group would sing their “swan song.” But in this season at the end of each episode, the bottom two groups sang off, alternating parts in a song to determine who would stay and who would go.

Season four featured a country-pella group, a group entirely composed of high school students, ten backup singers who banded together to create a group, a Filipino-American boyband and six other groups. 

The covers produced during the Sing-Off are often my favorite version of a particular song. In this season, Ten (the group of backup singers who banded together) gave a chilling rendition of “Skyfall” during the movie night themed episode. 

The high school students were phenomenal – especially when you take into consideration that they’re still in high school. They could definitely keep up with the “big kids” with their covers of “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” and “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up).”

The Filipino-American boyband had so much energy and stage presence that most of their songs were just plain fun to watch. They are the traditional boyband with typical boyband energy and dancing, but they just don’t have any instruments other than their voices (a good example of this is their cover of “One More Night”). And they can sing and sound great without any studio mixing or synth. 

And finally, Home Free introduced America to country-pella. Home Free won the competition, and they deserved it. Their vocals were smooth, with the tightest harmonies of the season. Home Free had their style, and they knew it. They were a country group, and they added that country flair to everything they sang. I was impressed with their first performance ("Cruise"), and they just kept on going up from there!

Current favorite a cappella covers

“I Need Your Love” by Pentatonix

“Royals” by Pentatonix

“Save the World/Don’t You Worry, Child” by Pentatonix

“My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)” by Vocal Rush

“Skyfall” by Ten

“I’ll Alright” by Home Free and the Filharmonic

“Ring of Fire“ by Home Free

What's your favorite genre of music? Do you listen to a cappella? If so, who's your favorite group?

Spring Break, Part 2 – Surprises and Traditions

So I promised you a story about a really unplanned event during break. And, boy, was this unplanned and … interesting. 

My brother was sick at the beginning of break. Standard for my family. We have a tendency to get sick at the most inconvenient times – school breaks, vacations and holidays (we tend to take turns for the holidays because, you know, sharing is a good thing). 

Anyways, my bro was sick. We still have a mercury thermometer because it’s more accurate. We used to have two, but one broke a year or so back. But that’s neither here nor there. 

We broke another over spring break, so my mom and I got to clean it up. Good news? We didn’t get mercury poisoning. Bad news? It can take a long time to clean up. 

Even though there were some surprises, my family also has some traditions for breaks. In particular, my sister and I always make some time for board games or puzzles together. This break – Lord of the Rings Risk. 

We’ve played LotR Risk before, but it’s always interesting because my sister and I have very different (but also eerily similar) strategies. Some things are always the same when we play. I’m the black orcs. She’s the golden elves. I get Mordor. She gets Gondor. 

And then we start actually playing the game. My brother gets really frustrated watching us play because our strategies are so different. My view is that it’s a game, it’s war and her little plastic elves are going down. She tends to favor the approach of loading up her territories, defend them and not really attack me. She’ll attack the neutral army but not necessarily mine. 

I’d love to tell you how it ended, but we only got about halfway through the game. We were working on her strategy, so at the moment we’re pretty evenly matched. I suppose we’ll find out in May who wins unless the game gets cleaned up before then!

Spring Break, Part 1 – Sickness, Sleeping and Cannons, Oh My!

Breaks are always interesting at my house. There’s the standard things that happen, such as there’s always something different at home. Sometimes it’s a new lamp, minor redecorating or semi-major rearrangement of the kitchen. This break was no different. New small benches at the game table, puzzle piece photo frames on the wall – that’s cool. 

Sometimes eventful things happen (planned or unplanned), and sometimes eventful things don’t. But hey, that’s break. Sometimes, it’s just something small, but other times, it’s not. We seem to have a tradition in my house for someone to get sick on holidays, and now that’s expanded to college breaks also. But that’s just life. (It feels like I’m the one that’s sick on holidays and breaks a lot, but that might just be my view.)

This break was one where the unplanned eventful things happen. 

So, standard break. Sick? Check. Hanging out with family? Check. Watching an excessive amount of Netflix/catching up on all the shows I don’t have time to watch at school? Check. Finding a counted cross stitch project that I started as a Christmas project about four years ago for my mom and still haven’t finished? Check. Going to the mall with my family? Check. Helping my mom clean the house and cook? Check. 

But even in these “standard” things, something always happens to spice life up. Trip to the mall? Originally, it was just to find my sister a dress to wear to prom this year. And we did that. And we walked around the mall some. That’s when we found something odd. 

A cannon. Yes, you read that correctly – a cannon. There is a legitimate cannon in the mall, right outside New York & Company. It wasn’t there just a couple months ago, and I’m not entirely sure why it’s there now. But it is. It makes a lot of sense because of the area where I live (yay historical sites from the Revolutionary and Civil Wars!), but still. Cool? Yes. 

And then there’s also the really unplanned eventful things. But we'll save those for the next post.

'Chocolate' 'Cheese'cake?

The first carob experiment went well, so I tried another – "chocolate" "cheese"cake. But this recipe had neither chocolate nor cheese in it, and it was easy to make!

Cheesecake is one of my favorite desserts – especially New York cheesecake. I love tangy cheesecake with the sour cream layer. So when you suddenly can't eat one of your favorites, you look for a substitute. Enter this carob dessert.

Chocolate substitute? Easy – carob. Cream cheese substitute? It's a little different – tofu. I know that sounds weird, but please bear with me. This dessert is greater than the sum of its parts.

The tofu in this is different from what most people think of when they imagine tofu. The first picture that comes to my mind is the firm tofu strips that come in my hot and sour soup from my favorite Chinese restaurant. 

But how can that be turned into cheesecake? Well, it can't, as far as I can tell. There are different kinds of tofu. There's that firm (or extra-firm) tofu used as a protein replacement in savory dishes, and then there's also silken tofu used to make custards or as part of a smoothie base.

Thanks to the internet, I found this recipe for carob tofu "cheesecake." I made some adjustments to the original recipe because I am not gluten-free and I still eat sugar. 

Without further ado, the recipe!

Carob Tofu "Cheesecake"

Crust

⅓ c. butter/coconut oil, melted (I used half butter, half coconut oil)
[Note: Yes, I do know that butter does have dairy in it. I'm fine with eating that little bit in butter, so I still use it in my recipes. If you can't have any dairy, replace the butter with dairy-free margarine, coconut oil or any other fat of your choice.]

1 ¼ c. graham cracker crumbs

¼ c. sugar

Filling

3 c. tofu

½ c. honey

2 bananas

½ - 1 c. carob powder (use as much or as little as you want to get it to the desired taste!)

1 T lemon juice

1 ½ t vanilla extract

⅓ c. powdered coconut milk (optional, this makes the “cheesecake” filling firmer)

Crush graham crackers in a gallon zip bag into oblivion (until they turn into crumbs). Add sugar and melted butter and coconut oil and squish until combined. Dump mixture out of bag into baking dishes (I used a small 4" springform pan and four custard cups). Tamp down mixture in baking dishes and bake at 300 degrees until golden brown. For me, the custard cups took about seven minutes, and the springform pan ten. Let cool while making the filling. (This crust is vital to the recipe. The dessert would not be worth eating without it.)

Dump tofu, honey, sliced bananas, carob, lemon juice, vanilla and coconut milk powder if using into food processor. Pulse until thoroughly blended, scraping down sides of bowl if needed.

Pour into baking dishes and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Freeze for at least two hours. Pull the desserts out of the freezer a half hour before you want to eat them. Seriously - this is the difference between a carob tofusicle and a carob cheesecake/pudding. 

This is a good option for a dessert – it’s edible, but I wouldn’t want to eat this all the time. It’s definitely not cheesecake (especially since the last cheesecake I had was authentic New York cheesecake, this doesn’t even come close to that). It is a viable dessert option as long as you’re not expecting the same texture and flavor as cheesecake made with cream cheese. I wouldn't liken this to a cheesecake, but it's only the first in a long line of my experiments to perfect a "cheesecake." 

Overall assessment: edible, definitely not cheesecake, not really my cup of tea (or slice of cheesecake), and a good start to find a decent cheesecake replacement. But this is not that cheesecake replacement.

'Spring’ Break and ‘Chocolate’ Chips

I think the seasons got a little confused. I thought I left winter
in Ohio. Apparently not.

When your backyard looks like this over spring break, there’s only one thing to do – stay inside cooking in the kitchen. 

Armed with a laptop, iPhone, pencil, paper and oodles of recipes, I began my cooking extravaganza. I didn’t make a ton of food, but I was able to try out two new recipes, both of them totally chocolate-, dairy-, corn- and tomato-free!

Now, for both of these recipes, tomato didn’t really matter - the original “normal” recipes wouldn’t have tomatoes anyways. Seriously. Who would put tomatoes in either chocolate chips or chocolate cheesecake?

Let’s start on the “chocolate” chips. I could just buy chocolate substitute chips, but they still have milk in them - in the form of nonfat milk powder and whey. So those are out of the picture. 

But, thanks to the internet, I found recipes to make them myself. My mom and I gathered the ingredients last weekend, and I set to making carob chips on Monday. 

Carob comes from the pod of a tree that grows by the Mediterranean Sea. The fiber from the pod is scraped out, dried and ground into powder. Carob powder functions just like cocoa powder, but they have different flavors. Carob also does not contain caffeine, and it is naturally sweeter than cocoa.

Carob Chunks

1 c. carob powder

¼ c. + 1 T sugar

1 c. coconut oil (I used unrefined, cold pressed, organic, extra virgin coconut oil)

½ T espresso powder

1 t vanilla extract

peppermint extract (optional)

Melt coconut oil in small saucepan on stove. Coconut oil has a very low smoke point, so it won’t take long. Remove from heat and whisk in carob powder, sugar, espresso powder and vanilla. The mixture will be a little gritty. (If you want mint carob chips, add your peppermint extract here. I only added the mint to between a third and half of the mixture, so I only used a half teaspoon. Use just a little – you can always add more. Seriously, you don't want your carob chunks tasting like toothpaste.)

Line baking dish with nonstick aluminum foil and pour in carob mixture. Refrigerate until hard, then unmold your carob and chop into chunks.

My carob is still chilling in the fridge, mostly because I need to remelt then remold mine. I didn’t line my dishes with foil, so currenlty it's a little difficult to get my carob out. But hopefully I’ll be baking carob chip cookies later on this week!

Next post: "Chocolate" "Cheese"cake