We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story

            

Rena.

My heartbeat quickened for an instant; it was as if someone had whispered my name, right in my ear. I bolted upright, but the only noise in the room was my own breathing. The room was still, dark. I lay back down and burrowed under the heavy military-grade blanket the Rangers had left on my bed. Maybe I was just going crazy. Hearing voices and seeing treason every which way did seem a little nuts.

But I couldn’t be wrong. Something had happened to Alex. Mikael had threatened me. One plus one equals two, right? So why was I the only one who saw it? What kind of evidence did I need to prove that something was very wrong here?

It was frustrating, so frustrating, and I was so tired. I felt my eyelids growing heavy and I knew I was fighting a losing battle. I needed sleep. After all, I was only human.

Poor BB, too much foreshadowing for one 15 year old to handle.

Hey guys, I'm here to formally apologize for the delay - a mixture of work, social life and to be perfectly honest, Pokemon kept me from being more on the ball about updating. But I'm here today with many things, mostly about food, because lets be real: this is really the best part about my blog.

First thing's first:

I hate spending a lot of time making things, and I also hate a lot of cleanup. As Rena just lamented, I am only human.

So Thursday rolled around, and I found myself with a hankering for something different. Thursday's normally pizza night in this house, but "something something something I won't be home for dinner," said my mother, or something to that effect. I'm sure I listened at the time.

I popped open my trusty Evernote Food app* on my iPod while I was at the grocery store and picked up the ingredients (and another bottle of that trusty poor man's sparkling beverage) before heading home. Turns out there was still a parent home, so I was suddenly cooking for two. Or three, as my dog would like to tell you.

Her tail is blurry because she hasn't realized that all this cooking isn't for her yet.

Either way, I got started. I had decided on making one of my absolute favorite recipes that I am sharing with you today because I love you guys so much, because it takes literally no time to prep, requires the dirtying of literally one bowl and pan, and one disposable bag (preferably ziploc. I used a normal sammich one once, it was a disaster).

The Food:

The main dish was Coconut Baked Chicken, one of the first recipes I ever made on my own, and one of the few that I've come back to over and over again. I love it because it's so easy to adapt, cheap to make, and always tastes delicious. Personally I go a little heavy on the coconut and I don't even measure out the ingredients anymore, I'm of the opinion that the more chili/cayenne/onion/whatever powder gets dumped on that chicken the merrier. Also a plus, when you drop the chicken in the baggie to bread it, you get to shake it around with a lunatic. You can dance if you want to. You can leave your friends behind...

Anyway, I popped that sucker in the oven and started frantically texting everyone back at Purchase trying to find out the recipe my friend uses for his crazy good sauce for dipping in since I'm genetically predisposed to HATING THE EVERLIVING HELL OUT OF CILANTRO. You won't have to do that, because I figured it out.

For veggies, I sauteed some shallots, green beans (they were on sale and I did a very unattractive victory dance in the middle of the produce aisle) and a red bell pepper with garlic and canola oil as per this recipe kinda. It was good, but should've been steamed a lot longer than the 3 minutes, at least on my stove.

If my ten year old self knew I'd be eating this stuff 13 years later, she'd hang herself in the bathroom

 Luckily no one showed up to Hawking's time traveler party.

 And as soon as I'd plopped those bad boys in the frying pan SOMEONE FINALLY GOT BACK TO ME ABOUT THAT STUPID SAUCE.

I lied, it's not stupid. It's delicious and I never want to say a bad thing about it again.

Pro tip: Chobani low-fat greek yogurt. I discovered it when I used it in the skinny cake pops I made around Christmas and never looked back. This stuff is genius. It is the Ditto of the cooking world.

Anyway, the sauce was a liberal interpretation of Chobani yogurt, sriracha, and agave syrup. that's all. And it was literally the perfect amount of heat to go with the coconut chicken. I don't have a recipe because the recipe is more like guidelines, anyway.

To conclude, my Thursday night looked like this:

Hidden Mickey!

And I settled in for a wild night of procrastinating and crying over the Vampire Diaries.**

Oh, and Amber still thought she was getting some.

"I don't get it, boss, but I'll keep my mouth open just in case you trip from the couch and drop the plate in there."

Oh, and writing's still happening, you guys! Not as fast as I wanted, but Rome wasn't built in a month! That bit up top was written just tonight. It's so hot off the presses it'd burn the roof of your mouth and leave you miserable for two days. I want to talk about the weird parts of world-building some time this week, but you'll have to get through another post about food first. I know, so sad.

* This is awesome. I want to gush about it for days. I only use it for the cookbook function, and my only complaint is that I have an iPod and not an iPhone so internet connectivity is a little annoying when it comes to updating. If you have an iPhone then YOU'LL HAVE NO COMPLAINTS.

** Okay, so it took me half a week but I've finally come to terms with the fact that wasting the XX song on a stupid Rebekah/Stefan scene was necessary because if it had been over a Damon/Elena one my television would have summarily exploded. I'm still bitter, but acceptance is a virtue.