hello twenty-two, life is beautiful

picture courtesy of Kurt <3

Adding to that list...

Barack Obama

People I want to be when I grow up

Nate Silver
Alton Brown
Frantz Fanon
Ralph Williams

HOLY SHIT I AM NEVER BUYING FOOD AGAIN

Seriously, guys, make your own food! Not only it is way cheaper, it is also way healthier! And it does not take that much time! And don't give me the "i-don't-know-how-to-cook-shit" look, because this is from a girl who were afraid of the stove until she was like, sixteen.

This is the girl who used to go hungry rather than cook!
This is the girl who used to make eggs in a microwave!
This is also the girl whose father took one look at her noodles, and told her "You should, um, work on the presentation!"

Cooking comes with time, and when you get it it will be all worth it!

So, for example, Hummus.
it costs less than 2 bucks to make a lot of hummus. 99cents for chickpeas, a little tahini, olive oil, lemon juice. Sure, maybe it'll go up to 2 bucks if you want to put in some pine nuts.
Hummus costs freaking six dollars at restaurants! and i haven't found good hummus around Ann Arbor yet!!

Pasta is dirt cheap.
A pound of pasta costs about $1.26. Can of tomato paste : 69cents
All you need to do is sautée some onions, green peppers and mushrooms, chicken
and then add tomato paste some salt, black pepper. And some dried herbs. And you are good to go! Less than 2 dollars!!
Or if you prefer cream/milk based, it's easy! learn how to make roux! it is just basically butter and flour.

Why pay 11dollars for pizza when you can make your own, easily under 15 minutes. If you are more ambitious, you can make your own dough, but a ready made dough cost from about 3.50 for two to 5bucks depending on the brand. And the great thing about pizza is, you can just find shit in your fridge and put it all over your pizza. Pop it in the oven at 450degrees and there you go Pizza done in 12 minutes! No kidding!

A cup of soup at Panera costs $4.25
You can make a pot of soup for less than 3 dollars. Less than half an hour. Easily! And you will get mushroom and chicken in every bite!

Don't even let me start with Asian food (malaysian, chinese, indian)
Curries, sambal etc. You can do it in less than half an hour. Siap dengan sayur. Haha.
E.g Ayam masak lemak, tumbuk cili, letak santan, letak atas dapur, masukkan ayam, kacau.

And rice. Rice is like 18-20bucks and it last for months!!

And why pay 3-5 bucks for sandwiches? You can get a french baguette for 2.95 at panera and you can make about 4 sandwiches out of that. Not to mention the old trusty sliced bread! 3bucks for the whole week. Buy your own deli meat, and put whatever you like on it!

This is just everyday stuff, that i usually make on regular basis. Hey, I am a college student too. I come home wanting to kill myself sometimes but trust me, rather than going on campus food and ordering food that will easily set you back 12 dollars, Cook!
Our groceries every month comes up to about 50-60 bucks a week between two people! Eating out cost you a lot more! Especially here in Ann Arbor!!

Yeah, yeah, the cleaning up part! it's not that bad! while waiting for your roux to brown, you can wash some of the utensils you've used.

And if you have time, or during the weekend, try something fancier and you'd be surprised how much you save!

This year has been great for me because my boyfriend and my lovely roommate just eat whatever I serve and I get to experiment a lot with food.

In the last post I mentioned, I made Tagine and Paella. Not only that! This year i have tried to make a lot of yummy foooood and I'd say most of them were successful.

Another great thing about cooking is, you'll try something when you travel and when you come home you can make it yourself! Puerto rico was food heaven for me, and it WAS expensive! But now i can make mofongo, with my 79cent plantains and bacon (beef). It cost us $16 there! I also learnt how to make the etouffé i had in New Orleans. YUMMY STUFF guys!

I try to do something different every weekend and it is so much fun!Oh, and with the internet you basically can find any recipe you want! after a while you will learn how to make it your own :P

some things that i have made this year:
enchilada, salmon potatocakes, alfredo, carbonara, primavera pasta, crepes, basil lamb, italian wedding soup (great soup! it has chicken meatballs in it), chicken kafta (arabfood isnt too complicated) etc etc

I even made my own recipe for this soup that Jamal loves. Once you get into this whole cooking thing, you can basically cook anything out of your pantry!

Of course, this does not mean I don't go out to eat at all! I love sushi,and sometimes i'd go to indian restaurants or good restaurants i've heard about. My point is, eating out should be a nice pleasure once in a while not a daily thing!

So there you go, guys! Pick up that spatula and start cooking and saving A LOT OF MONEYYYYYHHHH!

xoxoxo
fizah

p/s : I love allrecipes.com and myresipi.com (for malaysian food)

in your arms, i find a place,
a little place, where you get to
forget me for a little bit,
while you read your little book
on our pink, uncomfortable
little couch.

and i sleep.

finding poetry in you

i told him i need to write again. and he said i stopped writing probably for the same reason he did.

"Too content"

i told him, "you don't even write love stories,"

he told me he wrote out of ennui.

"Boredom?"

"Emptiness,"

i said, "i suppose that is not a bad thing,"

he said, "this is why we are not poets,"

Membaca Françoise Sagan di Ann Arbor

Quand sa bouche chercha la mienne, je me mis à trembler de plaisir comme lui et notre baiser fut sans remords et sans honte, seuleument une profonde recherche, entrecoupée de murmures

Bonjour Tristesse, Françoise Sagan

Hier soir

You said to me last night, "Je t'aimerais à jamais"

"tu sais, jamais means both ever and never,"

and i told you i wish i could write poetry for you.